Houston janitor sentenced for ‘relieving himself in water bottles where he worked

You’ll want to make sure those leftover water bottles are cleaned off your desk when you leave for the day because a Houston janitor has just been sentenced to six years in prison for “relieving himself” — urinating — in water bottles after hours at the office building where he worked. Worse still, the former janitor, Lucio Diaz, had an STD.

According to Click2Houston, it all started in Aug. 2022, when an employee at a doctor’s office where Diaz worked as a janitor noticed the water from a communal office water dispenser had a funny taste and smell so she poured it out.

She decided to bring a water bottle to work, but the next month, she left that bottle half-full on her desk overnight. A few days later, she drank the water and noticed the same bad taste and smell.

At first, she had no idea what had happened, so she poured the water out, threw the old water bottle away, and got a new one. A short time later, a coworker offered to pour some coffee into her new water bottle, and when she removed the cap, she noticed a yellow liquid inside.

“I felt disgusted,” the woman, who had declined to be identified in the press, told Houston’s KHOU 11 that year of the discovery. “I raised it to my face, smelled it, and it smelled like urine.”

Alarmed, she had the liquid tested by the on-site physician, and it was urine. Stranger still, other employees said they’d had the same thing happen to them.

She launched her own investigation

The office where the woman worked reportedly had no security cameras, so she hooked one of her own up to her computer monitor, and caught Diaz in the act: Urinating in her water bottle several times over several days.

She went to the police, who interviewed Diaz, and he told them he had a “sickness,” incurable herpes simplex 1 virus and hepatitis A, and that he relieved himself in the office drinking supply more time than he could remember. He said he did so with malicious intent.

The woman who contacted the police and at least two other women at the office tested positive for Diaz’s herpes and hepatitis infections, which can be life-threatening, and doctors said they likely caught both from coming in contact with Diaz’s urine. A total of nine women came forward with similar symptoms and allegations. All in all, the Diaz lawsuit included 13 women.

Diaz pleaded guilty to indecent assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and in March this year, he was sentenced to six years in prison with credit for time served, Houston’s ABC 13 reported.

Diaz will be eligible for parole in three years, and in a plea deal, will not have to register as a sex offender. Diaz’s case did not go to trial, but a hearing was held to allow victims time to read impact statements.

In a statement, Diaz’s attorney said after his client’s sentencing was announced, “Mr. Diaz was remorseful for his actions and did not want to go to trial and put the complainants through that process as well. He accepted responsibility for his actions and accepted the negotiated plea offer.